A workshop was conducted in Sardar Patel College of Engineering on basic aeronautics and avionics on the 20^th and 21^st September 2009 by Rishikesh Karande (4^th year, Mechanical), Viraj Kulkarni (4^th year, Electronics), Siddharth Tiwari (3^rd year, Mechanical), Hiral Haria (2^nd year, Mechanical) and Tarun Vohra (2^nd year, Mechanical) on behalf of the Society of Robotics and Automation (S.R.A), V.J.T.I.

The workshop was organised under the IEEE Association which is active in SPCOE. 22 Teams i.e. 44 students participated in the workshop; most of which were S.Y.B.E students from various departments.

          The workshop started with a PowerPoint presentation by Rishikesh Karande on the basics of aerodynamics. The inquisitiveness and enthusiasm of the students  and engaging questions stirred us to delve into depth of the topics.            

The second half of the 1^st day saw the Hands-on session being conducted. The fuselage design was provided by the S.R.A. But the wings were designed by the participants themselves based on the knowledge provided initially. This was basically intended to encourage creativity and hone their aerodynamic skills in the participants.

            Siddharth Tiwari started the second day with a presentation on History of Flight and elaborated on different types of planes including Fighter planes, passenger aircrafts, and U.A.Vs (unmanned aerial vehicle) etc. showing different areas of applications of aerodynamics.            

The presentation on Avionics i.e. electronics used in aeronautics was presented by Viraj Kulkarni. This lecture covered interesting information regarding R.C. planes and electronic stabilization systems which attracted students’ attention. This was followed by the session in which planes were tested; all of them successfully, and the teams acquired practical knowledge regarding various problems faced during the launch and flight of the glider and ways to overcome the problems efficiently. The participants were then asked to go through the models made by different teams so that they could visualise and understand the effect of different wing designs on the flight of the glider.

             Written feedback obtained from the participants has painted a very positive picture for the workshop.  It was gratifying to know that the students as well as the committee wanted the workshop conducted again next year on more advanced models. The S.R.A hopes to conduct many more such workshops in the future